sband took
him aside to enquire whether he found Gabarnac too sweet, because he had
a bottle on which he would value expert opinion. It was all so like the
night of fifteen months ago that Eric could not believe his passage was
booked and his trunks packed. Lady Poynter began counting her guests
with jerks of a fat, slow forefinger. "Two, three, five, seven, nine,
eleven. . . . Then there's one more. Ah!"

She looked over Eric's shoulder as the door opened and the butler
announced:

"Lady Barbara Neave."

Under the blaze of the chandelier and amid a chorus of "Babs darling!"
"Hullo, Babs," Eric found no difficulty in remaining composed. She was
the more surprised of the two, for, as soon as she caught sight of him,
she turned to Lady Poynter, crying:

"Margaret, you must send him home at once! He's been very ill and he's
no business to be out of _bed_!"

"But he's going to America to-morrow, he was telling us."

For a moment Barbara's face was blank. She recovered quickly and
repeated: "_To-morrow?_ I've simply lost all count of time."

"Including dinner, darling," said Lady Poynter, with a meaning glance at
the clock.

It was all so familiar that Eric's sense of probability would have been
outraged, if he had not been put next to Barbara.

"I'm very glad to see you again, Eric," she whispered: "Dr. Gaisford was
so gloomy about you. . . . How long have you been allowed out?"

"Oh, a week."

"And you never told me? You never wrote or telephoned----"

Eric felt his face stiffening into unamiable lines as he remembered the
agony of the first four days' silence.

"You never wrote or telephoned to me," he interrupted.

"The doctor told me I mustn't. He put me on my honour. I'm not sure that
I didn't really break my word when I sent you those flowers." Her hand
stole out and sought his under the table. "Don't you think it would have
been kind to let me know? Don't you think it's possible I may have been
worrying about you?"

Eric dropped his napkin and picked it up again for an excuse to escape
her hand.

"Isn't it rather late in the day to begin worrying?" he asked. The girl
winced and bit her lip. "I was only a bit overwrought," he added. "Now
I'm rather less overwrought. There was nothing else to tell you."

"About America? I saw it in some paper, but I didn't bother about the
date. I didn't think it necessary. Eric--Eric, you _weren't_ going away
without saying good-bye?"

He turned upon her so sud